Introduction to Burmese sapphires

Although it is rubies
for which Burma (Myanmar) is famous, some of the world's
finest blue sapphires are also mined in the Mogok area.
Today the world gem trade recognizes the quality of Burmese
sapphires, but this was not always the case. Edwin Streeter
(1892) described Burmese sapphires as being overly dark.
Unfortunately this error was later repeated by Max Bauer
and others. G.F. Herbert Smith wrote…

While the Burma ruby is famed throughout the world
as the finest of its kind the Burma sapphire has been ignominiously,
but unjustly, dismissed as of poor quality. In actual fact nowhere
in the world are such superb sapphires produced as in Burma.

G.F. Herbert Smith, Gemstones, 1972

While this statement
must be qualified by adding that the finest Kashmir sapphires are
in a class by themselves, those from Burma are also magnificent.
J. Coggin Brown (1955) said this:

It has been stated that Burmese sapphires as a whole
are usually too dark for general approval, but this is quite incorrect;
next to the Kashmir sapphires they are unsurpassed. Speaking generally,
Ceylon sapphires are too light and Siamese sapphires too dark, and
it is more than probable that many of the best 'Ceylon' stones
first saw the light of day from the mountainsides of the Mogok Stone
Tract.

J. Coggin Brown, India's Mineral
Wealth, 1955

Figure 1. 21.09 carats of Burmese
midnight-blue mystery. This stone, an example of Mogok's
finest product, was offered in the late 1980s in Bangkok
for $10,000/ct. wholesale.
(Photo: Adisorn Studio, Bangkok)

Not all Burma sapphires are
deep in color. The best display a rich, intense, slightly violetish
blue, but some are quite light, similar to those from Sri Lanka.
The key difference between Burma and Ceylon sapphires is saturation, with
those from Burma possessing much more color in the stone. Color banding,
so prominent in Ceylon stones, may be entirely absent in Burma sapphires.

Burmese sapphires

Although rubies are found with much
greater frequency at Mogok (rubies form about 80-90% of the total
output), sapphires may reach larger sizes. Cut gems of over 100 carats
are not unknown. Large fine star sapphires are also found at Mogok,
in addition to star rubies. Near Kabaing (Khabine), at Kin, is located
a mine famous for star sapphires.

The sapphires of Burma occur in intimate association
with rubies in virtually all alluvial deposits throughout the Mogok area, but
are found in quantity at only a few localities, particularly 8 miles (13 km)
west of Mogok, near Kathé (Kathe). At Kyaungdwin, near Kathé, in
1926 a small pocket was discovered that yielded "many thousand pounds' [sterling]
worth of magnificent sapphires within a few weeks." (Halford-Watkins, 1935b)

An
interview with U Thu Daw

Longtime Mogok gem dealer, U Thu
Daw, a contemporary of ACD Pain (of painite fame),
was interviewed by one of the authors (U Hla Win).
The following are some of his edited comments on Burmese
sapphires:

U
Hla Win: Were there any big sapphires
found in the pre-World War II
days?

U
Thu Daw: Yes, including some
famous stones. U Kyauk Lon from
Gwebin village found one and
sold it to Albert Ramsay for
one lakh of kyats [US$13,000].
[Ramsay later named the 958-ct
giant the 'Gem of the Jungle']

UHW:
Isn't he the one who was
famous for star sapphires?

UTD:
Yes, he became famous because
of his dealings in Mogok, although
he did not have much money when
he first arrived.

UHW:
Do you know of any other famous
sapphires?

UTD:
Yes. U Shwe Hlaing of Zegyi found
one which weighed over 100 carats
after cutting. I saw it with
my own eyes and it was quite
beautiful.

UHW:
How much did it sell for?

UTD:
U Shwe Hlaing did not sell it
in Mogok. After attempting to
sell the gem in England, it was
eventually sold to U Shwe Kin,
owner of Rangoon's Kwan
Louk Hotel, for under one lakh
kyats. U Shwe Kin reportedly
later sold it in Hong Kong.

UTD:
Of course. U Kan from Ze Haung
(Old Market) had one which weighed
1450 cts. U Shwe Kin also bought
this one, for 70,000 kyats. But
this time he wasn't so lucky.
I think he cut it on a Saturday.
U Shwe Kin's brother took
it to Hong Kong. He was killed
in a train wreck there and the
stone lost. It was a fine sapphire
and might have fetched 10,000
kyats.

UHW:
Were there any famous sapphires
in the post-war period?

UTD:
I did not notice much. The famous
sapphire mines are Loke Khet
(Kaday-kadar), Chaunggyi (north
of Mogok) and Lay Thar Taung.
At Lay Thar Taung, the brothers,
U Thein and U Ba Thaw, made a
successful sapphire mine. There
were so many sapphires mined
that they had to be moved by
horses. Those brothers were so
kind-hearted that those who came
to buy sapphire were sold bucketfuls.
Many got rich because of those
brothers.

UHW:
Were the sapphires of good quality?

UTD:
They were. Lay Thar Taung sapphires
are famous in Mogok.

According
to Halford-Watkins (1935b), the majority of fine sapphires were
derived from the area between Ingaung and Gwebin. Sapphires have
also been found near Bernardmyo: [1]

Bernardmyo itself at one time produced large quantities
of sapphires, many of which were of magnificent colour and quality,
though a number were of a peculiar indigo shade, which appeared either
very dark or an objectionable greenish tint by artificial light.
During an extensive native mining rush to Bernardmyo in 1913 a number
of these stones were placed on the London market.

Many of the stones found in this area were coated with
a thin skin of almost opaque indigo colour which, on being ground off, revealed
a centre sometimes of a fine gem quality, but in many cases of greenish shade.
The method of occurrence was different from that anywhere else as the majority
of stones were taken from a hard black iron-cemented conglomerate, which was
found layers a few inches thick, often only a few feet below the surface. This
area now appears to be exhausted, and little mining is carried on there to-day
except for peridots, which are abundant.

Another isolated local deposit which has produced some
fine sapphires occurs at Chaungyi, four miles north of Mogok, and about a thousand
feet higher.

Other than blue, sapphires
also occur in violet, purple, colorless and yellow colors at Mogok.
The violet and purple stones may be fine; yellows tend to be on the
light side and are not common. Green sapphires are known, but rare.

Rough orientation

Orientation of sapphires from Mogok
is important. While stones from localities such as Kyauk Pyat That
retain their rich blue hue in various orientations, those from Chaunggyi
and Painpyit take on a greenish tint when the c axis is not
exactly perpendicular to the table. Many Mogok dealers attribute
this phenomena to "invisible black silk," and pay strict
attention to locality when buying sapphire rough (U Hla Win, pers.
comm., 2 Sept., 1994).

Famous Burmese sapphires

SM Tagore in his classic
work, Mani-Málá (1879, 1881), describes
several celebrated sapphires. One of these was a fabulous
stone of 951 cts, and was seen by an English ambassador
to the Court of Ava (Burma). Tagore also mentions a curious
custom among the Hindus of India. They were said to have
a prejudice against sapphires, believing the blue gem
to be the bringer of misfortune.

In consequence of this notion, some of them would
invariably keep a stone on trial for several days before they would
make final settlement with the sellers. Hence, perhaps, the paucity
in the numbers of Sapphires in their possession.

SM Tagore, Mani-Málá, 1879

One magnificent Gwebin
gem was scratched up just below the grass in 1929 by miners preparing
a site for digging. Found by U Kyauk Lon (U Hla Win, pers. comm.,
May 2, 1994), it was a water-worn, doubly-truncated pyramid weighing
an incredible 958 cts. Purchased for $13,000 by Albert Ramsay, who
dubbed it the Gem of the Jungle, the rough produced nine fine
cut stones, weighing 66.53, 20.11, 19.19, 13.15, 12.29, 11.39, 11.18,
5.57, and 4.39 cts. All stones were personally cut by Ramsay and
were said to be of exceptional color. A marvelous account of the
purchase and cutting of the Gem of the Jungle was published
in the Saturday Evening Post in 1934 (Ramsay and Sparkes,
1934).

About 1967, a 12.6-kg
(63,000 ct) crystal surfaced at Mogok. Today this sapphire colossus
is on display at the Myanma Gems Enterprise (MGE) office. Like virtually
all giant specimens, it is far from gem quality. In order to see
if something of gem quality might be lurking within, MGE staff disemboweled
it with drill and saw. Alas, the interior was just as opaque as the
skin (see Figure 4). While this piece is billed by MGE as the "world's
largest sapphire crystal," in fact a number of much larger specimens
are known, including a 40.3 kg crystal from Sri Lanka which contains
gemmy portions (see Table 2).

Figure 6. The
12.6-kg sapphire giant owned by Myanma Gems Enterprise.
Note the large central piece which was removed in an attempt
to see if gem material might lie within. (Photos: U Khin
Mg Win)

On Feb. 22, 1994, a
large sapphire of 502 cts was unearthed at Khabine, about 2.4 kms
from Gwebin. The crystal is a single pyramid of rich blue color,
and slightly silky (see Figure 6).

Table 1 is an admittedly
weak attempt to catalog some of the more famous Burmese sapphires.
Criteria for being listed includes titled specimens, specimens large
or fine enough to merit mention in newspaper/magazine articles, and
those which have set auction records. Unfortunately, due to the secretive
nature of the gem business, many fine specimens have never been publicly
described. The authors would
love to hear from readers with additional information.

Table 1: Summary of famous
Burmese blue sapphires

Ruspoli's Sapphire ('Wooden
Spoon Seller's Sapphire' or 'Great
Sapphire of Louis XIV')
135.8 cts; faceted; rhomb shaped (only six facets); said to have
been found by a wooden spoon seller in Bengal; sold by the House
of Ruspoli (Rospoli?) of Rome to a German prince (salesman?), who
in turn sold it to the French jeweler Perret for 170,000 francs.
Later purchased by Louis XIV.

Unnamed
62.02 cts; faceted, rectangular step cut; mounted in diamond ring;
sold at Sotheby's St. Moritz, Feb. 20, 1988, for $2,828,546
($45,607/ct). Per carat and total price world record for a single
blue sapphire.

*On April 1, 1914, the carat was standardized
as 200 milligrams. Weights before that date are approximate
only. All dollar prices in US dollars unless stated otherwise.
[ return to top of table ]

Acknowledgments

U Hla Win would like to give thanks
to U Thu Daw for educating him about Burmese sapphires, and to U
Khin Mg Win for the photographs.

Richard Hughes would like to thank Bob Frey, expert in
various things Chinese and founding member of HAW HAW, who has gone above and
beyond the call of duty in both editing and locating obscure references.

Notes

The plateau
of Bernardmyo was chosen by the first British expedition to Mogok
as a suitable place for a sanitarium for British troops. It was
thought that the climate was more suitable for Europeans and that
eventually the place would develop into the Simla of Burma. Bernardmyo
was christened after the first British Chief Commissioner of Upper
Burma, Sir Charles Bernard (GS Streeter, 1887, 1889). [ return to article ]

Author's Afterword

This
article was based in part on an excerpt from my book, Ruby & Sapphire.
It was published in 1995 in the Journal of Gemmology (Vol.
24, No. 8, October, pp. 551–561). I was able to meet U Thu
Daw during my first visit to Mogok in 1996. Sadly, he passed away
shortly thereafter.

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